Arlington Bowie survives upset bid by Arlington Lamar; Vols to play for district title

The Arlington Bowie football team was playing to keep its season on track for a district title on Thursday night.

Arlington Lamar was playing for its playoff life.

The Volunteers played catch up all night long against Lamar, but Bowie got a 35-yard field goal from Nate Acheampong with 14 seconds left to take its first lead then held on for a 31-29 win over the Vikings in a District 8-6A game at Choctaw Stadium.

The win clinches a playoff berth for Bowie (7-2 overall, 5-0 district) and sets up a showdown with Arlington Martin (6-3, 5-0) for the district title next week. Martin defeated Arlington High (3-6, 2-3) on Thursday night, 58-21, after the game was moved up due to the Texas Rangers being in the World Series and impending inclement weather in the forecast for Friday.

The most likely scenario for Lamar (3-6, 2-3) will be an Arlington win over Arlington Sam Houston (0-8, 0-4) next week. This would set the Vikings up to have to defeat South Grand Prairie (3-6, 3-2) next week to create a three-way tie, but Lamar would have to beat the Warriors by 14 points to earn the final playoff berth.

Arlington defeated SGP 24-17 and downed Lamar 45-19. The District 8-6A point cap is 21 points.

“We like living life on the edge,” said Bowie coach Joseph Sam. “We have a blue-collar, hard-fighting group and all we have to do is stay focused and the sky’s the limit for us. I don’t think that we really took Lamar lightly, but I do think that the kids were looking ahead a little bit to next week.”

It was a hectic final 2:16 of the game in which 16 points were scored. Lamar had just completed a 14-play, 86-yard drive to take a 29-22 lead on a one-yard scoring pass from quarterback Gannon Carey to Trenton Yancey, but Bowie did what they had done all night...bounce right back.

The Volunteers got a 20-yard pass from Larry Nichols to Zion Shelley down to the Lamar 40. Two plays later Nichols was forced from the pocket and scrambled his way 39 yards to the end zone.

“I did what I had to do,” said Nichols, who completed 12 of 21 passes for 249 yards and rushed nine times for 73 more. “Our game plan was to get it to our play makers. We made some mistakes tonight that we need to fix before we face an even bigger opponent next week, but we plan on going 1-0 every week. That’s our goal.”

There was some confusion as to whether the Vols would go for one or two and a rushed point after attempt was wide right allowing Lamar to cling to a 29-28 lead. With only 1:15 left in the game, Bowie was forced to attempt an onside kick that came from the 25 yard line after the Vols were penalized on the PAT.

Acheampong executed a perfect onside kick for Bowie that was recovered by Johnnie Macon at the Volunteer’s 34 yard line.

Nichols guided the Vols down to the Lamar 18 hitting pass plays of 14 and 11 yards, both to Dilon Jackson, sandwiched around a 33-yard gain when Nichols was forced to scramble, setting up the game-winning kick.

“I made up for the missed extra point with the onside kick and we got it back,” said Acheampong, who booted three filed goals a week ago against South Grand Prairie including the game winner. “I was really sad when I missed the extra point, but when we got the ball back I was really happy that I was able to make up for my play. We got it down to around the 20 and won the game.”

Yancey returned the ensuing kickoff 49 yards to the Bowie 40 with one second left, but a Hail Mary pass to the end zone was picked off by Dilon Jackson to end the game.

Every time Lamar would score, Bowie had an answer.

Carey took the third snap of the game around right end and darted down the sideline for a 68-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

Bowie countered early in the second quarter. Following a 52-yard punt by Lamar’s Cooper Barnard that gave the Volunteers the ball at their own 23, Darrion Bowers carried twice with the second being a 74-yard TD.

Bowers, who carried 10 times for 121 yards, ran up the middle shedding two tacklers before breaking in the clear. The score tied the game, 7-7, with 6:30 left in the second quarter.

Lamar took the lead again when Carey took the second snap of the ensuing series and found Yancey over the middle. Yancey, a freshman, did the rest racing 56 yards for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead for the Vikings with 5:50 left in the half.

Carey completed 19 of 32 passes for 141 yards and had 106 yards rushing on 11 attempts. Yancey was his favorite target with 10 receptions for 113 yards.

Bowie pulled even again to open the second half when Nichols pushed a short pass to Zion Shelley who took off down the right sideline for a 46-yard score. Shelley, who led Bowie with four receptions for 99 yards, tied the game at 14 with 11:19 left in the third quarter.

From that point the teams battled back and forth trading three-and-out punts and lost possessions until late in the third period.

Lamar took advantage of a short Bowie punt, coupled with a 13-yard return by Cooper Barnard, to start at the Vols’ 29.

The Vikings ran eight plays capped by a two-yard scoring run by Carey. Barnard ran in the two-point conversion and Lamar led 22-14 with 34 seconds left in the third.

Bowie, however, bounced right back two snaps later with a 50-yard scoring pass from Nichols, who was drilled on the play, to Rafeald Campbell. Tyrin Jackson’s pass to Dilon Jackson for two points tied the game again, this time at 22 with 11:51 left in the game.

“To me Lamar’s record is not indicative of what kind of football team that they are,” said Sam. “A lot of their losses have been close ball games and I knew that Coach (Billy) Skinner was going to make the game ugly, which was a great game plan. I knew they would try to win it at the end and he almost got it.”